| Spider Diary December 2006 |
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| Monday, 30 October 2006 | |
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A warm welcome to December's Spider Diary. Its a festive bumper edition this month, with tons of pics and a fair few videos to boot.... Lots to report, so let's plough straight on in there... We start today with another new arrival ! I am pleased to introduce you all to 'Boots', who is a Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens, or, for those of us who don't do 'Latin' names, a Greenbottle Blue Tarantula. She lives in the wild in the scrub lands and deserts of Venezuela. I've had an eye out for one these little beauties for a while now, and she is from the first and only batch of captive bred spiderlings I've seen this year. So what's so special about little Boots ? I'll let the pics explain... here she is, just arrived, being a perfectly behaved young lady as she moves into her first home...  Here she is again, having just arrived, deciding where would be best to set up shop...  Look at that amazing colouring ! She has detailed orange chevrons down her back, and a shiny gold iridescent star-striped carapace, though you can't really see that without zooming in a bit - click to expand the pic... But it gets REALLY exciting as she grows - those little legs that are bright pink now, with black tips, end up bright iridescent blue, her carapace goes bright green, and her opisthosoma gets covered in bright orange hairs, making her a very smart looking spider indeed. I'd pop a picture in of what she'll look like as an adult, but this diary is already huge enough, so I'll save it for the new year... Not only that, but as they get older, their webbing becomes more and more spectacular, with elaborate and thick circular walls extending outwards from the burrow, or hide. They grow to around 5 inches, so an average-sized T. Known to be quite well mannered and non-aggressive, they can be quite flighty, and nervous, so caution will be taken during maintenance, although if she does bite, it is likely to be of little consequence. Another interesting thing about this animal is that its lifestyle is half terrestrial, and half arboreal. A burrow is sometimes used, but equally often, the spider will choose to make its home between leaves higher off the ground. In Boot's case, she chose to set up shop between 2 leaves, and has hardly moved from there ever since ! Here she is, captured on night-cam, doing her wonderful thing, and adjusting the leaves to her liking with some well placed web-action. I could go on about her all day, but no space, but so moving on, next up in the diary is Little fluffy, my Peruvian Orange Stripe T... good news - she's moulted again. So recently, in fact that she hasn't yet left her burrow after doing so, and so all can show you is the pics of her new vastly bigger legs protruding from the burrow, which is now a tad too small !  Look at that superb webbing ! Clever girl ! Ginny's up next, but alas, no photos of her today, as the ones I did take came out dreadfully this month. her tank badly needs a glass cleaning session, so that will be a mission for over the festive period... but she is eating well, not climbing at all, and generally approaching life with more enthusiasm than normal, which I take to mean she is still happy. Even though it is months since she moulted, she still has a full opisthosoma's worth of flickable hairs, which must mean that she has not once felt the need to flick any for all that time - hopefully a stressless spider... And talking of big, nearly adult spiders, Zebs is doing well too. He she is, seconds after capturing a 2" adult locust for your delectation... Her back end really is huge now, and she could possibly be at the fattest I've ever seen her, so that might be the last big meal she has for a good couple of weeks. No signs of aggression from her this month, and no attacking the water bowl either... Heading over to arboreal land again, let's have a look at the ones we can't see ! Flash, who lives 100% of the time deep in her tube web is almost impossible to get a photo of these days,a nd it looks like we'll have to wait until she moves tanks to see her in her 5th instar glory ! but we have had a bit more luck with an even more elusive and secretive beasty - little Tenebrus, the Venezuelan Suntiger. As you may remember from last month, I was going to move her to a new enclosure as for sometime I have been concerned that her current home is too small. It would seem she disagrees. Here is the set up - old house in new house - wait for spider to come out and stretch its legs, then remove old house, and insert cork bark, and leaves for Tenebrus to web onto - job done... or so you'd think... this would be fine, but this month, at least, she's not having any of it. here's a top down view of the tank-in-tank situation...  And here is the video that shows the most interest she has expressed in moving out in the last 2 weeks I've been trying this method of transfer... as you can see, she pops out, has a quick explore to the very edge, then can't feel anything the other side, and promptly disappears back down her burrow, never to look again, so it seems ! But we do get to see her at all which i have come to learn is to be appreciated for the rare treat it is... And that would just leave Legz to check in on, and see how she's doing... 'Well' is the answer here, and I was lucky enough to watch her catch a cricket mid-leap as it jumped past her earlier this week. She is perhaps the most visible of all my arboreals and spends perhaps only 20% of her time hidden away - most of it, she is out basking, all over the tank, but particularly over the water bowl when full, or on the heat pad with all her legs outstretched... Interestingly, she is full of surprises behaviour-wise too. in the 4 months I've looked after her I have yet to see a threat display, or indeed any other sign of outward aggression from her. She doesn't bolt, isn't too jumpy, and isn't particularly nervous either. It would be easy to forget how fast and how venomous she is, but i am ever vigilant, and hope never to let my guard down based on how well -behaved she was last time ! I shall close this months Diary with a nice video of her deciding which way up to sit, and then a pic of her basking outside her bamboo tube burrow...  And that is indeed it for another month, and indeed the last diary this year, unless I should feel particularly inspired to do a festive special, or a 'looking back at the year' type article ! So from me and the girls (and Binky) have a great holiday, and a happy Christmas... Tenebrus, Legz, Ginnevra, ZBD, Fluffy, Binky, Flash, Boots, and me :) |
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 30 November 2006 ) |
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